Where does the time go?
One hundred and sixty-eight is a number you should always be aware of. It is the total number of hours in a week. No matter what business you are in or how small it is, you work with other people. They may be coworkers, editors, suppliers, clients or other members of the vast global economy. These people also have 168 hours every week. You need to find fellow human beings that have similar goals so they can help you achieve yours. The goals don't have to be the same just overlap enough so that cooperation benefits both parties.
Cooperation requires communication. Good communication requires respect. When deciding what and how to communicate you need to respect the 168 hours available to the other person. Mankind has invented many ways to communicate. Each method that became widely accepted has transformed society. The spoken word allowed early man to cooperate on the hunt. The printing press is credited with ending the dark ages. Electronic communication allows you to read this article.
The phone can be the biggest time saver or biggest time waster that has ever been invented. The phone is great for brainstorming but not for communicating complex details. When you call someone, there is no question you are interrupting him or her. If you are expecting well-reasoned insightful decisions on information you just presented don't use the phone. The four biggest problems with the phone are interrupting the callee, no record of what is said, the caller is not required to clarify their thoughts before calling and there is no chance for the callee to mull things over before responding. Despite these drawbacks there are times when the phone is the most appropriate means of communication.
When you write a letter you have the opportunity to clarify your thoughts. You can add or remove paragraphs until your letter communicates exactly what you want. In a carefully written letter, there is no extraneous information nor is there missing information leaving the reader with uncertainties. This makes the written word much better at communicating complex ideas or details than the phone.
The most recent development in communication is e-mail. If done properly it can combine the clarity of a letter with the timeliness of a phone call without interrupting the recipient. With e-mail you can explain complex ideas and review them before they are sent. The other person can easily e-mail a question back. Then you can clarify the information. And all this correspondence is permanently recorded which overcomes the biggest drawback of the phone.
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